SERIOUS FOOD SHORTAGES PERSIST IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, SAYS UN FOOD AND
AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION
MORE THAN 18 MILLION PEOPLE IN EAST AFRICA DEPEND ON FOOD AID
Food Supply for 2001 Expected to be "Very Tight"

Nairobi, 9 April 2001- Warning of a generally unfavourable food outlook in
sub-Saharan Africa for 2001, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
said, "The number of people facing severe food shortages is now estimated
at some 28 million, of whom 18 million or 64 percent are in eastern Africa."
Altogether, 16 countries in the region face exceptional food emergencies.*
That was the stark message of the Organization's FOOD SUPPLY SITUATION
AND CROP PROSPECTS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA, released at a news conference
here today.

According to the report, "Continued food assistance is necessary in all countries
of eastern Africa and the Great Lakes region as well as in Angola, Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone."

The report also said, "Food production in southern Africa is projected to
decline sharply, mainly due to adverse weather, while civil strife continues
to disrupt food production in Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Sudan."

The UN food agency called on the international community to provide substantial
financial assistance for agricultural rehabilitation and repair of infrastructure
in Mozambique, which suffered severe damage from flooding during the last
two years. The report said Liberia, Rwanda, Republic of Congo and Sierra
Leone would need sustained assistance to rehabilitate their agricultural
sectors following prolonged civil strife.

"In Kenya, the severe drought in 1999/2000 seriously undermined the food
security of nearly 4.4 million people and resulted in a massive relief operation.
Despite some improvement, the food supply situation is still precarious,"
the report says. In the northern pastoral districts, where severe shortages
of water and pasture resulted in large livestock losses, the failure of this
winter's short rains season has exacerbated widespread food insecurity.

Elsewhere in eastern Africa, the report says, the food supply situation is
precarious for more than 1.8 million people in Eritrea caught up in the war
with neighbouring Ethiopia. Some are also suffering from the effects of last
year's drought in some areas. In Ethiopia, despite the improved overall food
availability, some 6.5 million people affected by successive droughts and
war depend on food aid. Pastoralists in the southeastern part of the country
have been the worst hit.

Sudan is also facing serious food shortages in western and southern parts
of the country due to drought, the report says. "The long-running civil war
is exacerbating the situation by impeding farming activities and distribution
of relief assistance."

Somalia has seen a satisfactory secondary season harvest, which was preceded
by a favourable main harvest and this, says the report, "has improved the
country's food outlook. Consequently, the number of people in need of food
assistance has declined from 750,000 in 2000 to 500,000 this year. However,
recent nutrition surveys indicate persisting high malnutrition rates, reflecting
slow household recovery from a succession of droughts and long-term effects
of years of insecurity."

The report calls the food outlook in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
"bleak" and says that food assistance is still needed elsewhere in the Great
Lakes, including Burundi and Rwanda. The DRC has some 2 million internally
displaced people and additional 333,000 refugees, mainly from Angola. The
number continues to rise as fighting flares up in both countries, with serious
nutritional and health consequences. The food problems have been further
aggravated by the outbreak and spread of cassava mosaic virus, which has
seriously affected the staple crop, particularly in eastern parts of the
country. The food situation is also extremely tight in urban areas, mainly
Kinshasa, where the number of vulnerable people has increased, according
to the report.

In southern Africa, the report forecasts a sharp fall in cereal production
for 2001, mainly because of a prolonged mid-season dry spell and subsequent
excessive rains that damaged food crops in most countries. In South Africa,
low maize prices at sowing time contributed to lower planting, while in Zimbabwe
resettlement of large-scale commercial farms will be a contributing factor
to reduced production. The latest FAO forecast for the maize crop, points
to a decrease of 27 percent compared to last year. Maize accounts for 75
percent of cereal production in southern Africa.

The sharp decline in maize production in South Africa, officially forecast
at nearly 34 percent from last year, will mean a considerable reduction in
its exportable surplus. According to the report, neighbouring food-deficit
countries may need to source their grain requirements from outside the
sub-region.

In parts of Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe about 960,000 people
have had their lives disrupted by severe floods. Damage to infrastructure
and housing as well as crop losses are reported. The damage is particularly
serious in Mozambique, along the Zambezi River basin, says the report.

In the Sahel, the food supply situation has tightened in parts, following
reduced harvests, notably in Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger. Food distributions
to the affected populations are underway and the governments have appealed
to donors for assistance. Sierra Leone and Liberia remain heavily dependent
on international food aid, despite some improvement in food production, while
Guinea is faced with rebel attacks in border areas, which are affecting
agricultural activities and have caused new population displacements.

Overall, sub-Saharan Africa's cereal import requirements are projected to
remain high in 2001. The report says this is because of the effects of drought
last year in eastern Africa, reduced harvests in parts of the Sahel and an
expected sharp drop in production in southern Africa.

While FAO's Global Information and Early Warning Service monitors the food
and crop situation in sub-Saharan Africa, the Organization's Special Relief
Operations Service provides assistance to people affected by natural and
man-made disasters. The Special Relief Operations Service is at work in a
number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Angola, Burundi, Congo,
Ethiopia, Horn of Africa, Great Lakes and Central Africa, Somalia and Sudan.
The Service provides assistance to the livestock and agriculture sectors
to get food production up and working as soon as possible following a disaster.
The aim is to ensure that the population can feed itself again as quickly
as possible